June 12,2013. Moscow,Russia. Russian protest leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced in Kirov to five years in jail for theft on Thursday,July 18, it is an unexpectedly tough punishment which his supporters said proved President Vladimir Putin was a dictator ruling by repression. Pictured: Anti-Putin rally in Moscow. One of the leaders of Russian opposition Alexei Navalny with his wife Julia (L) participating in the rally.